RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Brandon Luna and Trey Newman each drove in two runs apiece in the nightcap as Utah Valley pulled within three runs late, but it wasn't enough as the first-place California Baptist Lancers held on to win the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, 11-7, to sweep Saturday's action and secure the weekend series. CBU also won the first game of Saturday's twin bill by a score of 7-3.
 
The WAC-leading Lancers improve to 24-11 overall and 16-3 in conference play with the victories, while UVU falls to 7-30 overall and 5-18 with the setbacks. The Wolverines will look to salvage a game from the series in the weekend finale on Sunday afternoon. 
 
GAME TWO
With UVU trailing 8-0 in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, the second-year freshman catcher Newman helped jumpstart the offense by blasting out a two-run home run down the leftfield line to cut the deficit to 8-2 in the fourth. His homer, which marked his third of the season, scored Jeff Arens who had previously singled in the inning.
 
After CBU tacked on a run to make it 9-2, the Wolverines responded with a four-run sixth to pull within a three at 9-6. Garrett Broussard started the sixth-inning rally with a single and later came home on an RBI single up the middle from Luna. With the bases later loaded in the frame, Mick Madsen plated Luna by working a bases-loaded walk. With the bases still full, Mitch Moralez singled home Kade Poulsen with an RBI hit, and Andrew capped the scoring with an RBI fielder's choice to bring in Newman and make it a three-run contest. 
 
California Baptist managed to answer back with an RBI hit from Mitchel Simon in the bottom of the inning along with an insurance run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Jonah Paez to make it 11-6. 
 
The Wolverines then made things interesting by getting two on with two away in the ninth and Luna delivered a two-out RBI hit to bring in Hacker and pull UVU within 11-7. But CBU reliever Ryan Delgado responded by striking out Poulsen after a long battle to end the ballgame. 
 
CBU starter Drew Necochea went 5.1 innings and surrendered four earned runs (six total) while striking out four to earn the win and improve to 3-0 on the season. UVU starter Bobby Voortmeryer suffered the defeat on the mound for the Wolverines to fall to 2-5. 
 
Luna led UVU offensively by going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored while Newman went 1-for-3 with the two-run homer and a walk. Four other Wolverines collected hits for UVU in the nightcap. Simon and Chad Castillo paced the Lancers in the contest by each going 2-for-5 with two runs batted in. 
 
GAME ONE
With both starting pitchers looking solid early on, CBU managed to strike first with a run in the bottom of the second to take a 1-0 lead. After a walk and a single, California's Baptist's Simon drove in Nick Plaia with a sacrifice fly to center to give the Lancers the early lead. 
 
The Wolverines countered back with three runs of their own in the fourth to take their first lead of the series at 3-1. Alexander Marco, who entered the weekend tied for fourth in the nation in doubles on the season, started the frame with a leadoff double to right and later came in to score via an infield RBI single from Poulsen to tie the game at 1-1. The Murrieta, California native Drew Sims then followed with an RBI single to left to Bring home Luna, who previously reached on an error. After a sacrifice bunt from Madsen, Moralez then drove in Poulsen with an RBI groundout to give UVU the 3-1 lead.
 
The Lancers didn't waste any time responding, as they answered back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame to deadlock the score at 3-3. After a UVU defensive miscue and a double from Plaia put runners on second and third with nobody out in the inning, Harrison Spohn plated them both with a two-run double to right to tie the ballgame. A couple of batter later the Lancers tried to take the lead on a squeeze play, but Poulsen made a stellar defensive play to quickly field the bunt and glove flip it to Sims at home to mow down Spohn attempting to score to keep the game tied. 
 
CBU then regained the lead in the fifth after scoring a trio of runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 6-3 advantage. With two runners aboard following a UVU throwing error, Plaia drove in the go-ahead run with a sac fly to center to make it 4-3 Lancers. CBU later got RBI doubles from Spohn and Grady Tuohy in the frame to extend the lead to 6-3.
 
The Lancers later got an insurance run in the sixth to put the scheduled seven-inning contest away. 
 
The California Baptist starter Bryan Pope went the distance to earn the complete-game victory. The righty Pope surrendered just five hits and one earned run (three total) while striking out nine to improve to 5-4 on the year. Despite tying a career-high with six strikeouts and surrendering just two earned runs (five total) on five hits in 4.2 innings, UVU starter Nick Sims was tagged with the loss to drop to 1-5. 
 
Five different Wolverines recorded hits in the contest and Poulsen and Drew Sims each went 1-for-3 with an RBI, while Marco doubled and Moralez went 1-for-2 with a walk. Tavyn Lords also collected a hit for UVU in Saturday's opener. Spohn paced the Lancers by going 3-for-3 with three batted in and two doubles while John Glenn went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI.
 
ON DECK FOR UVU
The Wolverines and Lancers will cap the weekend series with the finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. MT/noon PT at CBU's Totman Stadium in Riverside.